Manufacture of bearings



April 5, 1938. J. BATE 2,113,073

MANUFACTURE OF BEARI NG S Filed Nov. 18, 1936 P e d e a use i NI D TE i BEARINGS John Bate, Aiperton, England, assignor to The Glacier Metal Company Limited, Alperton, England, aBritish company 4 Claims. (Ci. 29-1495) This invention relates to the manufacture of scription which follows and which shows one way bearings, and more particularly to one stage of a of carrying the invention into effect for the purprocess wherein bearings are formed from blanks pose of example only. by any suitable means into circular or semi-circu- The invention will be more readily understood 5 lar form. from the following description, read in conjunc- 5 The invention is directed mainly, although not tion with the accompanying drawing, whereof exclusively, towards the manufacture of blanks Fig. 1 represents a length of material upon for bearings used in internal combustion motors, which the process has been partially performed. such, for example, as the gasoline and Diesel mo- Fig. 2 shows a bearing blank after the process tors used in automobiles, aircraft and marine has been performed. 10 craft. Referring to the drawing, a piece of steel or The only stage with which this invention is other metal, suitable for forming a backing to concerned is that of the production of a bi-metalbearing blanks, is subjected to an indenting proclic blank; the subsequent shaping of the blank, ess which forms a series of depressions A in said after it has been produced, does not form any backing metal in such a manner that the T0111 1Q part of the present invention. edges of the depressions are bounded by a raised By the term bi-metallic blank is meant a boundary l.

piece of material composed partly of backing Each depression will eventually constitute at metal as is commonly used for bearings, e. g. least one bearing blank: it is generally preferable steel, brass, bronze, and alloys of these metals to form each blank by a single depressio 1 20 with each other or with metals not herein specithough in certain eases the pre portion may fled, and partly of bearing metal, e. g. white metal, constitute several blanks, as will be hereafter Babbitt metal and other non-ferrous alloys suitdescribed. able for a working surface. The term blank Th d es f t d s d p rt n may e paror bearing blank shall herein be construed to tially fra tur d du formation of t d p 2 mean a, piece of material which has been formed sion and in some cases it is very desirable partly to a predetermined size and coated with bearing to shes! t e metal t rough, along the perimeter metal, prior to its subsequent shaping into circu- 0f the depressionlar or semi-circular form. The depth of the depression is determined by Likewise, the term shearing and part-shearand equal to the thickness of the bearing metal 30 Shall be herein construed t rgfer t any that is to be applied to the backing metal, and process or operation resulting in a partial or com must Obviously always e less than the thickness plete fracture or cleavage of the metal, irrespec- 0f the backing material, since the latter must not tive of whether or not a true shearing action is e indented to such an extent that the p se performed. portion is immediately severed from the remain- 35 In the manufacture of bi-metallic articles it 0f te has already been proposed to place one of the Preferably a filming filmi Operation is metal bodies,e. g. the backing member,-ln a then performed upon the backing metal in and mold, in such a manner as to expose the surface around the Said depressions A- 40 to which the other metal-e. g. the bearing met- Heal; is then applied to the backing metal and 1 to be applied and subsequently t fill t molten bearing metal is flooded into the depres- Said mold t molten bearing metal up t any sions to fill them level with the remainder of the desired level, afterwards allowing both to unite backing metal- The material s e passed unwith or without a flux, and/or the application of er a scraper which removes the s p us bearin pressure. metal and. leaves the upper surface of the mate- 45 The object'of the present invention is to pro- 1191 level, the depressions v g a l been filled vide an improved process of manufacture of biup with hearing metallic bearing blanks in which the mold is dis- The material is then allowed to cool, after pensed with, thereby rendering the process b th which it is subjected to a severing operation cheaper and more readily performed without adapted o se a a he dep s d p r i s Afr m 50 complicated machinery. the rest of the material I (by completing the frac- Another object of the invention is to provide a time in cases Where Such has Occurred), a d method of making bearing blanks adapted for thereby forming a number of flat rectangular their production in large quantities. blanks 3, as shown in Fig. 2, the upper sides of Other objects will be apparent from the dewhich are coated with white metal. 55

In one corner of the material, as shown in Fig. 1, it can be seen that a number of spaces are shown where the process has been carried out and blanks have been removed. This comer illustrates the grid-like structure I of the surplus material remaining after the process has been carried out.

As already stated, each depressed portion constitutes a fiat blank. In certain cases, the depressed portions, after being severed from the remainder of the material, may themselves be sub-divided into a number of smaller pieces, each of which is capable of being formed into a bearing.

From the foregoing examples, the gist of the invention will be revealed to those skilled in. the art, so that they will be enabled, by applying current knowledge, to adapt it to various utilizations, including or retaining one or more of the features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of either the generic or specific aspects of this invention; such adaptations, therefore, should be, and are intended to be, included within the scope of the monopoly claimed.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:-

1. In the manufacture of bi-metal bearing blanks wherein the application of bearing metal to backing metal is performed by flooding the former in a molten state over the latter, the

method of defining the area of said blank and the thickness of said bearing metal which comprises punching partially through the plate of backing metal to form a plurality of depressions each approximating to the area of a completed blank and the depth of each depression below the raised boundaries formed by the undisturbed metal of said plate approximating to the thickness of bearing metal required; heating, and applying a flux to, the surface of said backing metal; flooding said depressions with molten bearing metal at least sufilciently to fill them completely level with said boundaries; removing any surplus bearing metal above said boundaries fiooding the mold cavity with -molten bearing metal, and completing the shearing of the depressed portion to separate the blank from the plate.

'3. The process of forming bi-metal bearing blanks which comprises forming a mold cavity in a metal backing plate by stamping the same to effect a partial shear of a portion thereof from the body of the plate, placing the stamped plate in horizontal position, whereby one of said portions of the plate forms the bottom wall of a mold cavity which has side walls formed by the other portion of the plate, flooding molten bearing metal into the mold cavity, completing the shearing'of said portion from the plate after the bearing metal solidifies, and dividing the portion thus separated from the plate into a plurality of blanks.

4. In the manufacture of bi-metal bearing blanks from non-ferrous bearing metal and a backing plate of ferrous metal, the process which comprises stamping spaced portions of the backing plate to depress the said portions by an incomplete shearing of the same from the baclnng plate, placing the stamped plate in horizontal position, flooding molten bearing metal upon the depressed portions, scraping off surplus molten bearing metal to the level of the unstamped portions of said backing plate, and'separating'each depressed portion from the body of the plate after the bearing metal solidifies.

. JOHNBA'I'E. 

